unbelievable
by fairytalelights
Summary: /He can't help thinking that he's never met anyone quite like her before./ There's a new girl working in the Lucky Cat Cafe, and her name is Dani with an i. (Somehow, things seem to be brighter with her around.)
1. the new employee

**Okay so I may have kind of just watched Big Hero 6 earlier today...and it was SO GOOD! And, I don't know, this kind of just cropped up in my mind soo yeah haha**

**(Dstabilised has already happened, Phantom Planet never does) **

**Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p>It's a Friday evening when Hiro stumbles into the Lucky Cat Café and finds an unfamiliar girl with black hair and bright blue eyes working behind the counter, and he has to blink and rub his eyes a few times to make sure he's not hallucinating.<p>

"Hiro!" Suddenly Aunt Cass is there, sweeping him into a warm hug and with a smile. "You're finally back in time for dinner!"

"Made a lot of progress today," Hiro tells her with a sheepish grin. He's guilty, he knows he is – for the past week he's practically been just swallowing down whatever's been put into his hands, staggering home late every night. His eyes flicker back to the black-haired girl, and then to his aunt again.

Aunt Cass notices immediately. "Oh, Hiro, this is our new employee," she says, and she glances over at the girl, who beams at him brightly and bounces over.

The one thing that Hiro first notices is how _happy _she looks. She looks so energetic, and full of life, and she's grinning wildly at him.

(He also thinks she looks kind of cute, but, you know, that's totally a different thing altogether.)

"Hi!" she says to him, brightly. "I'm Dani. With an _i._"

He thinks it's a funny way to introduce yourself, but it's also kind of cute. He grins back at her. "Nice to meet you, Dani with an _i_. As you've probably guessed, I'm Hiro."

"Yeah, Miss Cass couldn't stop talking about you," says Dani with an _i_. "Are you really in college? And, like, the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology? That is _so _cool!"

He can't help but beam at her, letting her words wash over him. She's not staring at him with open adoration, exactly, but her enthusiasm is bubbling and literally rolling off her in waves, and even though he's drop-dead exhausted, he can't help but stand up a little straighter and grin a little brighter at her.

"Well, yeah," he admits. "I guess it is pretty cool, huh?"

Dani laughs, suddenly. "Don't think you're gonna get a whole load of compliments from me just because I think it's cool you're only fourteen and in college," she tells him, as if she's read his mind, and Hiro can't help but laugh as well.

"What about you, then?" he asks her. "You look like you're _my _age. Shouldn't you be in school?"

She shrugs, and avoids his eyes. "Hey, I've gotta find _something _to do with my free time," she says. "And this place is totally cool. And some extra cash is always good."

Cass' eyes flicker from one teen to the next, watching how Hiro slides his hands into his jacket pockets and grins so visibly, so brightly, watching how Dani's already stuffed her hands into her jeans pockets long ago and is bouncing on her feet, like she's got way too much energy she has to let off.

"So, how long have you been here, anyway?" Hiro asks her, as he makes his way over to the counter with Dani and with his Aunt Cass, and he picks up a donut to eat. He bites into it and looks at Dani curiously.

"Working here? Today's my first day," Dani says. "San Fransokyo? Not for very long."

"Maybe one day Hiro could show you around San Fransokyo," Cass puts in, and watches as the tips of Hiro's ears redden slightly, the way Tadashi's used to.

"It's okay," Dani says. "You must be pretty busy with college and all. I've got a friend who's in Harvard or Yale or something, and she has, like, a ton of things to do, all the time. Besides, I've seen the city. It looks amazing, especially from way up above."

"Way up above?" Hiro asks, and Dani ducks her head and mumbles something about tall buildings and a skyline view and nonsense like that.

"Well," Hiro says, "if you ever want it, I guess I don't mind giving you a tour."

Dani blinks at him in surprise, and it is totally _not _one of the cutest things that Hiro has ever seen.

* * *

><p>Hiro's not sure when it becomes a routine, exactly.<p>

Dani's in every day of the week, in the late afternoons till evenings from Monday to Friday, and then nearly the whole day on the weekends. She becomes a familiar sight, her black hair jammed under her red hat, the tips of her scruffy sneakers peeking out from under her faded jeans as she takes orders and delivers food and grins brightly at everyone who walks in through the doorway.

One day, before he walks out the door, she stops him in his tracks and pushes a Styrofoam cup of coffee into his hands.

When he looks at her, slightly confused, she shrugs. "You look like you need it," she says. "Have you looked in a mirror lately? You look exhausted."

He blinks at her; he's definitely been feeling exhausted, working later and later on Baymax until well into the night, or his coursework, and, well, everything, really. And every day he's reminded even more of Tadashi, and sometimes it feels like there's an empty hole in his chest where his heart should be. It's a sort of unavoidable thing, his emotions and the amount of work he has, but he's just a little touched that Dani notices. "Thanks," he says, and she shrugs again and smiles brilliantly (which totally does _not _make him feel a little weak in the knees) and tells him to drink up and heads back behind the counter.

It's not long before he's grabbing a Styrofoam cup of coffee every morning from the counter, and getting a brilliant smile every time.

(He really needs the coffee – he's not just grabbing it so that he can see her smile at him. Nope. Nuh-uh. Because that would be totally and completely ridiculous.)

One day, he comes back to find her sipping her own coffee as the streets of San Fransokyo darken, and he doesn't really think about it, and he pulls up a chair next to her and flops into it because he's just _so darn tired_.

She looks over at him. "Bad day?" she asks, even though he's back earlier than usual.

"Very," he groans. He's been trying to work on a project on the side, a project that's not Baymax and has nothing to do with Tadashi because his heart hurts so much – but everything, and _everything_, reminds him of Tadashi and even though he never wants to forget it's difficult because it's _just so painful_.

She pauses, as if uncertainly, and then she says, "We've got some donuts, if you want. They're still pretty good."

"Not really hungry."

She scoffs. "Yeah, right," Dani says. "You should see my cousin when he finally gets back from the gazillion and one things he needs to do. He keeps insisting he's not hungry, but put a plate of food in front of him and BAM! It's gone in five seconds and he ends up feeling better than ever."

Hiro laughs, just a bit, at that. "Okay," he concedes. "Donuts it is."

When she hands over a donut, she asks him, "You know any good video games around here?"

He blinks at her in surprise. "I've got a couple upstairs, if you want to see," he says.

"Can I?" she asks. "I mean, it's so long since I played a video game. Pounding someone into oblivion sounds like a really good idea."

So every week, twice a week, Cass will find herself watching the two teenagers from the staircase as they play video games, yelling, hollering, laughing wildly as they challenge each other, and compete, again and again and again; and even though Hiro's a complete genius and whiz, he still gets defeated, time and time again, by the petite black-haired girl who yells in triumph every time, and who gets defeated herself and who groans dramatically in frustration every time she loses.

(And sometimes, it's not so painful to think of Tadashi, not when there's someone pounding away at you on the screen and when there's a girl next to him grinning so brightly and laughing so enthusiastically.)

* * *

><p>There are times, when Hiro just wants to curl up on his seat and pound his head against the wall because <em>it hurts so much to think of Tadashi<em>. It's times like this where he sits by himself and scowls at the world, where he doesn't eat, where he thinks to himself that he _has _to fix Baymax up again. When he gets like this, Aunt Cass just quietly leaves food and tries to talk to him; but he gives one-word answers, short sentences, so she disappears back down the stairs and bites her lip.

One of these times, it's not Aunt Cass who brings up some food, but Dani.

He nearly falls off his chair in shock.

"D-Dani!" he stammers, and he's suddenly aware that his hair is in a mess and his room is in complete and utter disarray and he's got his hundred and one action figures clogging up the shelves and mountains of scrunched-up paper and discarded ideas and plans and dirty clothes strewn all over and is that his underwear thrown on the floor oh god –

"What are you doing here?" Hiro stumbles to his feet as he tries to kick some of the mess under his bed, back to where it belongs; and Dani can't help but grin slightly at that.

"Miss Cass asked me to bring up your dinner," she says. "You've hardly been out for days."

Hiro shrugs, slightly uncomfortable, as he takes the plate of food that Dani's holding up. "Haven't been feeling so good," he tells her.

She raises her eyebrows, as if she's sceptical, but she doesn't ask. And suddenly, Hiro feels incredibly grateful that she's not pressing the issue, that she's not trying to get him to talk, just like how everyone always does when they meet him when he's in one of these moods.

(He doesn't know, of course, that she knows what it's like to not be feeling so good – after all, trying to run away from the man who created you and is now trying to melt you into a puddle of goo isn't the best feeling in the world.)

"So this is your room?" she asks him, looking around interestedly.

He nods, and then flushes, and then attempts to kick a long-forgotten T-shirt under the bed. "Yeah."

"What's that?" Dani wanders over to the divider that separates Tadashi's old room from his.

Suddenly Hiro feels cold, and he wants nothing more but to sink back into his chair and bury his head into his pillow but most importantly he wants Baymax _right now_ because it hurts so so so badly.

He takes a deep breath, sets the plate down, and he goes over to stand just a short distance behind her. "My brother's room," he says, quietly. "He died in a fire a couple of months ago."

He hears her sharp intake of breath, sees her gaze suddenly dart around the room and fall onto the photos of him and Tadashi and Aunt Cass, and sees her eyes widen. She scratches the back of her head, steps forward, uncertainly. "Sorry," she says, quietly.

Hiro shrugs, tries for a grin. "You didn't know," he tells her, just as quietly.

She looks at him, with those bright blue eyes of hers, and he notices, vaguely, that her dark hair's escaping from its ponytail, looping around her face.

"What was his name?" she asks him.

"Tadashi," he tells her. "He's the whole reason I'm in San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, you know. He is – was – the best brother – "

He has to swallow, then, and draw in a deep, ragged breath.

"He sounds like a pretty cool guy," Dani ventures.

Hiro smiles sadly. "He was amazing. The greatest guy ever."

Dani shifts from one foot to the other. "I don't know how this works," she admits, "but do you want to talk about him? Or do you want me to go away?"

(He can't help thinking, even through the pain that he's feeling, the cold, empty feeling in his chest, that he's never met anyone quite like her before.)

He slides back onto his chair, and gestures to his bed; and, carefully, almost cautiously, she sits down on the rumpled covers, and she crosses her legs and looks at him expectantly.

When Cass heads up, a couple of hours later, wondering where on Earth Dani and Hiro are, it's to find Dani curled up on his bed asleep, an open notebook in front of her filled with diagrams and notes and drawings that looks suspiciously like one of Hiro's, and her nephew asleep with his head on the table and the faintest of smiles on his face.

She thinks that she won't disturb them – after all, Hiro's sleeping, and he does look peaceful, and the plate next to his head is almost empty and bare. And besides, she can always explain things to Dani's parents if they choose to call up.

They don't call up, though. Cass figures Dani must've texted them before she fell asleep.

* * *

><p>One Saturday, Hiro asks Aunt Cass if she can let Dani off for the day.<p>

Cass glances over to where Dani's behind the counter, grinning brightly and talking to a small girl who's ordering a chocolate muffin. "Why?"

Hiro flushes, slightly, and Cass' sharp eyes notice immediately. "I kind of wanted to ask her if she'd like to see the lab," he admits. "I mean, I tell her about it, you know, once in a while, and she keeps asking about it, so I thought, um – "

He's cut short by the sound of Cass laughing brightly. "Of _course_ you can!" she tells him, and Hiro isn't quite sure he likes the way her eyes are shining brightly, or that he likes the knowing smile on her face. "Take the whole day, in fact. I can manage."

So Dani finds herself trudging alongside Hiro through the streets of San Fransokyo, her hands in her hoodie pockets.

"If you get bored," Hiro says to her, suddenly worried and slightly anxious and nervous, "I could always give you directions to head back – "

Dani laughs. "Well, if I get bored, I'll be sure to let you know," she assures him. "And I'll blame you for it, too."

He grins at her.

* * *

><p>When they enter, they're immediately ambushed by Honey Lemon.<p>

"Oh, Hiro, is this your _girlfriend_!" she exclaims, leaping over from her latest experiment to look at Dani excitedly. "Oh, this is amazing – "

"What?" Hiro says, nervously, anxiously, sharply, as Dani clears her throat and her face flushes slightly pink and she stares down at her sneakers like they're the most fascinating thing in the world. "No! Honey Lemon, this is Dani. She works in the café."

"Oh." Honey Lemon makes a face, but then she beams, and the next thing Hiro knows, Dani's being dragged over to take a look at her new experiment while Honey Lemon talks a mile a minute. She throws a frantic glance over her shoulder to look at Hiro, who grins at her sheepishly and mouths _sorry_.

It's GoGo she meets next, who looks unimpressed with her as she snaps her bubblegum.

"Dani with an _i_?" she says, when they're introduced. "What kind of a name is that?"

"What kind of a name is GoGo?" Dani counters. "It sounds like some sort of cartoon character's name."

GoGo grins at that, slowly. "Nickname," she says, briefly. "Fred comes up with them. You could call me an adrenaline junkie."

"Nice," says Dani.

When they meet Wasabi, he just sends a knowing look Hiro's way, who rolls his eyes and shakes his head because Dani is _totally _not his girlfriend. (Not that he would mind, if she actually was. He wouldn't mind at all. But since that is totally and completely not the case, he is not going to think about it.)

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Dani," Wasabi says.

Dani looks curiously at his tools. "Do you have a place for everything? What happens when you get something new? Won't that mess up your arrangement?"

Wasabi blinks at her in surprise. "I find a new place and a new arrangement," he says to her, and Dani nods, seriously, like she understands how labs work, like she understands how everything needs its place.

Fred's first words to her are: "Man, you're kind of cute, aren't ya?"

Hiro facepalms while Dani raises her eyebrows. "Thanks," she says, a little drily. "I love being told I'm cute by creepy old guys in Godzilla suits."

Fred grins at her, lazily. "So, you Hiro's girlfriend?"

"She's _not _my girlfriend!" Hiro says, loudly, insistently.

Fred holds up his hands. "Okay, okay," he says, the lazy, knowing grin still on his face. "Whatever you say, man."

"He's the school mascot," Hiro tells Dani. "By day and by night."

"And I'm totally awesome at it," Fred says to her. "You wanna see my do my sign-spinning?"

"Maybe later," Hiro says, and he pushes Dani gently over to his workroom.

He stands back as she pushes open the door and stares around the room in astonishment, at the diagrams and the plans and the tools and the lit-up screens and the Baymax that is slowly coming into shape.

"Wow," she breathes, and Hiro can't help but feel a huge sense of relief, as Dani starts walking around the room, gazing with wide eyes at anything and everything – and he's suddenly so relieved because she's _not _creeped out by his friends and she looks just so amazed and actually interested and he suddenly feels happiness swelling up inside him.

"Is this Baymax?" she asks him, and he nods. She moves over to the window and prods at the large red arm – "What's this?"

Hiro wonders, suddenly, if he should tell her. He's never told her about Callaghan or Krei.

And then she looks at him, her blue eyes wide and curious and really _wanting _to know, and he decides to tell her.

* * *

><p>She's a good listener.<p>

She doesn't often interrupt, and her eyes are wide and she's drinking everything in, absorbing it, looking at him quietly as he tells his story.

When he finally finishes, she just says, "Wow."

Hiro raises his head and looks up at her.

"I mean, wow," she says. "You did all that? You helped to upgrade all of them and find out their potential. And you didn't let yourself kill Callaghan in the end, because it was all about your brother and you didn't let revenge take over you. _Wow_. And then you went after him and tried to save Krei and everything, and you even went into that portal thing to help that girl? Even though you didn't know if you would make it?" She shakes her head, as if in disbelief, and then she looks up at him again with her eyes wide. "Wow," she says again. "That's amazing. That's totally awesome."

And Hiro doesn't really know what to say, because she is smiling that brilliant smile and he can feel her approval radiating off her and he thinks that she really does find it amazing and wonderful and she is taking it _so calmly_.

So he smiles, and he thinks that maybe there isn't always a need for words.

* * *

><p>He works the whole day on Baymax and his other, on-the-side project, and he listens as Dani talks. She fills up the silence with her chatter and her words, but it's not an annoying kind of chatter, it's the kind that makes him get up on his feet and be a little more enthusiastic in his work as she talks and talks and talks. She talks about all the cities and places she's been to, and Amity Park which is a town she'll always consider her home, and her friend Danny, and she talks about San Fransokyo and the university and that she thinks that she'll never be cut out for a college like this because she wouldn't be able to stay in one place for so long, and she wouldn't know what she want to do anyway.<p>

It's late when they finally leave the nerd lab, and Hiro looks out at the dark streets of San Fransokyo worriedly.

"I'll walk you home," he decides.

He's not expecting Dani to freeze up. "What?"

Hiro turns to look at her, and notices how her eyes are wide, her face is strained. He wonders why – does she leave in a bad part of town? "I'll walk you home. It's late, I can't let you get back by yourself."

She shakes her head, vehemently. "I'm fine, really – "

"I'm walking you home," he repeats.

"Hiro – "

"I'm not really giving you a choice, here," he tells her. "There's no way I'm letting you get back alone when it's so late."

(He doesn't think he'll ever forgive himself if there is even the slightest hint or possibility of any harm to her.)

He watches as she bites her lip, taps her feet on the pavement, presses her hands together like she's trying to make a hard, painful decision.

"I don't – " she begins, and then fails; and then she tries again: "I'm not – "

Her blue eyes look up to meet Hiro's, and it's Dani who wrenches her eyes away furiously, and Hiro wonders what's going on in her head.

He doesn't say anything, just stands there with his hands in his jacket pockets and looking at her.

(And he totally doesn't think of how great she looks in her worn-out hoodie and faded jeans and scruffy sneakers with the moonlight shining down on her and her dark hair and the light reflecting off her eyes. Nope. Not at all.)

Finally she bites her lips and nods, and then he follows her down a maze of streets to somewhere not that far from the Lucky Cat Café. She stops at a street and looks at him, expectantly. "I'm good," she says.

Hiro raises his eyebrows. "No, you're not," he says. "I told you I'd walk you home. Not to your street. Why are you so afraid of letting me know where you stay? I'm not going to stalk you."

Dani mutters something to herself and shoves her hands in her pockets and leads him down the street reluctantly, and finally they stop in front of an old, run-down building. Hiro has to blink in confusion, because he knows this is supposed to be an abandoned building – something about safety issues.

"This is it," she says.

"Dani," Hiro says, "this is an abandoned building. No one lives here."

Dani bites her lip again, and then finally she ducks her head, and mumbles something.

Hiro blinks, and leans forward, because he doesn't think what he just heard can be what she said because did she just say _I don't have a home_?

"What?" he asks, dumbly, looking at her.

She raises her head, sighs. "I don't have a home," she admits, quietly. "I've kind of made a place for myself here. It's not so bad."

He stares at her in disbelief. "You – you don't – "

She shrugs uncomfortably. "I mean, I consider this place my home now, I guess."

Hiro just continues to stare at her, because how can Dani have no home? She's cool and she's funny and she's great and she always looks so refreshed and clean and well-fed, and she looks so happy all the time so how does this even work anymore? Not that he has anything against homeless people; it's just that with Dani's vibrant personality and the life and enthusiasm fizzing out of her, how can she not even have a place to call a home?

"That's it," he decides, and he grabs her wrist and hauls her behind him.

She lets out a yelp: "Hiro, what the – "

"You're staying with us," he informs her. "There is no way I'm letting you stay there."

"Hiro, I've been staying there for _weeks _– "

"And now you don't have to."

"Hiro – "

"Not giving you a choice," he says.

So he brings her back, and when Aunt Cass sees Hiro drag Dani in behind him and up the stairs, her eyes widen slightly. "Hiro, Dani, what – "

"She's staying with us tonight," Hiro tells her. "And every night after, actually. I'll explain it all to you tomorrow!"

And he drags her up the next flight of stairs, pulling Dani along even as she's conceded to trailing after him silently.

"You don't have to do this, you know," she says, quietly, as Hiro fishes out a clean shirt and anything that could possibly be used as pajamas for Dani.

He looks up, blinks at her. "Yes, I do," he says, because it's true – what else can he do? It's the only thing that makes sense to him. "You're my friend. And besides, there's the bed."

"What bed?" Dani asks.

"Tadashi's bed."

Dani blinks at him in complete disbelief as he presses his shirt into her hands: "You want me to sleep in Tadashi's bed?"

Suddenly, Hiro is slightly awkward. "If you're uncomfortable with it – "

"No, no," she says (and he totally is not thinking about how cute and flustered she looks when she's embarrassed. Nope.), "it's just – you're okay with it?"

Hiro thinks for a moment.

He thinks of Tadashi, good, kind, helpful Tadashi, who only ever wanted to make the world a better place. He thinks of Tadashi telling him to go do something with his life, Tadashi who only ever wanted to improve the world, to help.

"Of course I'm okay," he says, and he slides back the door and she slips in.

She slides it shut, to change, and when she opens the door again he swallows because she somehow manages to look fantastic in an oversized shirt of his and an old pair of pants he found and somehow the room feels even smaller as she sends a smile at him.

She tugs out the band holding up her ponytail and her long black hair cascades down her shoulders, and she takes off her hat and puts it on the table along with her neatly-folded clothes.

"Um." Dani swallows, steps into Hiro's half of the room. "Thanks."

He manages a grin at her, and his heart rate is _totally _not increasing drastically as he looks at her and she looks at him. "No problem."

"No, really," she says. And then, without warning, she darts forward and kisses his cheek, lightly, quickly, before stepping back. "Thanks."

And she darts back into Tadashi's half of the room and quickly slides the door shut.

Hiro's hand goes up to his face, slowly, and he can feel the stupid smile slowly spreading over his face, growing wider and wider the longer he stands there.

He flops back onto his bed, and stares up at the ceiling, and there's still the lingering feel of her lips on his cheek, and he smiles at the ceiling stupidly.

Only one word runs through his mind –

_Unbelievable. _


	2. dani?

**hey! so here's the second chapter of this heh. maybe i'll develop it further - thank you _so much _to everyone who reviewed. really. **

**okay, i personally don't think this chapter's as good, but i did want stuff to really start happening here. maybe i'll get more fluff down in the next chapter. heh. **

**hope you enjoy! **

* * *

><p>The next morning, Hiro wakes to find sunlight streaming in through the window, the door to Tadashi's room open and the clothes he's lent Dani for the night neatly folded on the bed, and Dani nowhere in sight.<p>

All at once he's scrambling up in a panic, because _where the hell has she gone did she leave what is he going to do she can't leave him not like that – _

"Aunt Cass!" he finds himself saying, frantically, and he hurls himself down the stairs in his pajamas, "Aunt Cass, have you seen – "

And then he sees Aunt Cass look up from where she's serving coffee, and Dani glance up from behind the counter, and the people in the café looking at him oddly. There's an odd sense of relief washing over him as he sees her there, standing there, smiling, as she always is, even with the Styrofoam cup of coffee on the counter, just like nothing's changed.

And then he realises he's still in his pajamas.

He flushes red, deep, dark, red, and he doesn't miss the small smile on Dani's face as she tries to hold back her laughter.

"I'm gonna go now," he mutters, and he slopes back up the stairs hurriedly, quickly.

(He's totally embarrassed – but _damn _she's cute when she's trying to hold back a laugh. Not that he'll run down in his pajamas again and embarrass himself like that. Not even for her to smile like that again. Nope. No way.

Probably.)

* * *

><p>He finds that she's chosen not to tell Aunt Cass why she's stayed over, or why she's continuing to stay over. So he tells her instead, that night, as they eat dinner together.<p>

Aunt Cass' chopsticks clatter to the table – "You don't have a _home_?"

Dani looks embarrassed; why she looks embarrassed, Hiro will never understand. He expects sad, or upset, but not embarrassed, of all things. "No. No, I don't." She swallows another forkful of noodles (she's hopeless at eating with chopsticks – Hiro tried to teach her, once, and it's absolutely no use) and she says, "I wasn't going to – I can't live with my dad. And I don't have a mum."

"What about other relatives?" Aunt Cass wants to know. Hiro feels a pang of pain as he thinks of the possible reasons why she can't live with her dad, why she doesn't have a mum.

Dani just shakes her head; and then Hiro frowns suddenly.

"Wait," he says, slowly; "didn't you say you have a cousin?"

She ducks her head, and she stares at her noodles, like it's the most fascinating thing in the world.

"Dani?" Aunt Cass asks.

"His family doesn't know about me," Dani mutters, as she finally raises her head. "I was kind of – an accident. And we only found each other by accident. And his parents _can't _know about me."

Aunt Cass' hands fly up to her mouth, and she's horrified, aghast. This poor girl, this poor girl not a day older than Hiro – living on the streets because her family can't accept her? She doesn't know whether to be furious or upset.

"But it's not so bad," Dani says, hastily, hurriedly, taking in Cass' expression, catching the look in Hiro's eyes. "I know how to take care of myself. And I travel a lot. It's not so bad."

"You're staying here," Cass says firmly, without a moment's hesitation. "With us."

Hiro sees Dani open her mouth, as if to protest; but instead she fills it up with noodles, and she doesn't say a word.

When they go up later, to the bedroom, he finds that she's already been to the building she used to stay at and she's brought her stuff over. She's got a couple of spare shirts and jeans and an extra pair of shoes, and another red hat, and a couple of toilet stuff and a battered-looking phone and earpieces. But strangest of all, she's got a thermos with her, mostly white but with glowing green lines and buttons on it.

"What's this?" Hiro asks, his fingers already itching to open it, to take it apart, to find out how it works. It's no normal thermos, he can tell, and he wonders why it's with her. It looks almost pristine, like she's made sure to take good care of it.

"A thermos my cousin gave me," Dani says, and she doesn't offer anything more as she stows her things in Tadashi's room, carefully keeping the thermos. He doesn't ask.

Hiro flops onto his seat, watches her as she combs out her hair, and he blurts out, suddenly: "Why don't you want to stay with us?"

She turns to him, in shock. "What?"

"Why don't you?" he wants to know, and he thinks of her reaction to Aunt Cass' statement just now. "I mean, we've got the room. And you help out at the café. And we like having you around. We really do."

(I really do, he wants to say. I don't want you to go. But he doesn't say it.)

Dani smiles, and Hiro can't help but think that her smile's just a bit sad. (And he thinks that her smile is beautiful; it's sad, but it's beautiful, and he thinks again that he's never met anyone quite like her before.) "I don't like to stay in one place for too long," she tells him. "It's why I keep going from city to city. It's not a bad way to live."

"But don't you ever want a home?" Hiro persists.

"Home's not a place, it's people," she tells him, and she smiles again; but this time it's a happier smile, and she's got a faraway look on her face, and Hiro wonders if he could ever be one of those people. "And I've got the people who care for me."

"You've got a home here," Hiro says, stubbornly. "With us. Always."

Dani doesn't say anything, just smile and steps forward and squeezes his hand, lightly.

(Nope. It's not like his heart rate just increased rapidly, dramatically. Not at _all_. And it's not like Dani's hand feels so cooling and soft and small, or that it feels so right and real in his. Not at all.)

"Thanks," she says, softly, and then she turns around and pads her way into Tadashi's room.

* * *

><p>Things don't change, not really, even though she's now staying with them. She still makes coffee for Hiro every morning, and she still smiles at him, and he still staggers home late at night every once in a while.<p>

But nowadays - nowadays he spends three or four nights each week playing video games with her, while Aunt Cass complains in the background. Nowadays he stays up late into the night, talking to her, and he sees her eyes shine and she makes him laugh and often they collapse into hysterical giggles.

It doesn't hurt so much, anymore. It doesn't hurt so much to see Tadashi's smile staring at him out of photos, or to think of him.

(He thinks it may be because of Dani. But that would be ridiculous. But he can't help but feel better every time he makes her smile, or laugh, or punch him in the shoulder. And he can't help but smile every time she starts talking, or asks him a million and one questions, or beats him at video games, or just listens to him while he talks.)

* * *

><p>It's a few weeks later when Hiro finally completes Baymax.<p>

He thinks, though he'll never admit it, that he may have finished it earlier than he expected because of Dani.

Aunt Cass lets her have a day off every week, and on her free day she always follows Hiro to the university and hangs around in his workroom talking to him, or with Honey Lemon or Wasabi or GoGo or Fred. Hiro can't really understand why, but he works a lot better when she's around; his brain seems to get clearer, and his thoughts aren't so foggy, and it doesn't hurt as much when he thinks of Tadashi anymore.

(It still hurts, of course. Hiro doesn't think the pain will ever go away. But it doesn't hurt as much when there's a black-haired, blue-eyed girl sitting across him, talking non-stop enthusiastically about just everything.)

When Baymax is finally okay again, he lets out a triumphant yell and Dani skids in from where she's been talking to Wasabi outside, and her eyes widen in disbelief.

"You did it!" she says, excitedly, to Hiro: "Oh my god, Hiro, you did it!"

And then Hiro finds himself nearly falling over as she tackles him, flinging her arms around his neck with a surprising amount of strength for a small, petite girl, and he can't help but laugh as he hugs her back, because he is _so damn happy right now_.

He doesn't even care that the rest of his friends are in the doorway, nudging each other as they see Dani cling to him tightly, happily, and as Hiro hugs her back. He doesn't care because _he is hugging Dani _and _he's fixed Baymax_ and the world feels like it might just be getting itself together again.

And then suddenly –

"Scan complete," a voice says, and then Dani is stepping back, her eyes now on Baymax, growing wide with an emotion Hiro can't quite comprehend.

"Scan?" she questions.

"Oh, he scans everyone," Hiro tells her. "It's part of his personal healthcare companion thing."

He sees her eyes grow wide, very, very wide, and her face grow slightly pale, and he frowns. Why does she look so scared? She can't – she can't have some sort of fatal disease that she's chosen not to tell him about, can she?

(It might explain, though, her love for travelling, for moving from city to city as a homeless kid to see the world – but _no_! He can't jump to conclusions. No way. There's probably a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. There's no way that Dani is dying. She's too alive, and she's too real.)

"Your heart rate is abnormally slow," Baymax says, facing Dani, and suddenly Hiro's heart is pounding furiously, "and your temperature is unusually cold. There is a substance fused into your DNA known as – "

"Okay, enough!"

Hiro's not sure how she does it, but somehow Dani leaps onto Baymax and shoves her hands over the speakers where Baymax emits sound. Her face is flushed, her eyes are bright, and there's something in her face that Hiro can't quite grasp.

"Dani?" he asks, cautiously. "What are you – "

"Nothing!" she says, quickly. "Just – nothing. I'm gonna – I'm gonna go."

"But it's not even lunchtime yet – "

"And I have to go," she says. "I'll be – I'll be back at the café later."

Baymax blinks at her as she slides down the robot, and before Hiro knows it she's racing out of the room, out of the lab, and he's only staring after her in shock.

"What's with her?" Fred asks, and Hiro doesn't have an answer.

"Baymax," Hiro says, and he turns to the robot, "what's wrong with Dani? What's infused in her DNA?"

Baymax blinks at him. "Judging by her reaction, I assume that she does not want this revealed," the robot tells him. "I cannot betray confidentiality as a personal healthcare companion."

"Baymax!" Hiro says. "She's not – she's not going to die, is she?"

Baymax blinks again, slowly, and Hiro can't help the nagging feeling that Baymax is laughing at him, like he knows something Hiro doesn't.

"No," Baymax assures him. "No, she is not."

* * *

><p>Dani doesn't bring up the incident in Hiro's workroom again, and she avoids Baymax like the plague – which isn't very easy, considering how the big white robot stays in Hiro's room with him, but she manages it somehow.<p>

Every few nights, Hiro tries to get her to talk to him about it. And every single time, Dani doesn't give him a straight answer.

"I can't," she says, shortly. "Look, I can't tell you, okay?"

"Dani, if there's something going on, I can help!"

"There's nothing wrong with me, Hiro!" she tells him, and she smiles at him, that smile that makes him get so weak in the knees and makes him unsure just why he thinks that she's the reason he could build Baymax so quickly because right now his brain is going foggy just from her smile. "Really. I'm fine."

She smiles again, and Hiro thinks his head is whirling.

"Now, c'mon!" she says, and she drags him down the stairs: "It's time for me to kick your butt at video games!"

He doesn't protest. He'll find out the truth, sooner or later. He _will_. But right now he lets himself get dragged along because this is Dani and he doesn't think his brain really knows how to say no to her.

(She smiles and she laughs, and he thinks that it's the most amazing thing he's seen and the most wonderful sound he's heard, and he prides himself on being fourteen and in college and a child prodigy but somehow his brain seems to turn to mush around her sometimes and he doesn't even know why.)

* * *

><p>He's out on patrol one night when the glowing green mechanical thing flies past him.<p>

"Guys!" Hiro says into his earpiece, as he gets Baymax flying behind the glowing green figure – "There's some glowing green thing flying out here! And he doesn't look like he's here for something good!"

"On it," he hears GoGo say, and he can hear her snap her gum. "I see him."

"This is so cool!" Fred's voice crackles over the earpiece; "why d'you think he's glowing green?"

"Guess we'll find out," says Wasabi.

And so they chase him. Hiro doesn't know if the glowing green guy even knows that he's being pursued, but he flies off at lightning speed anyway, zipping through buildings and old abandoned blocks and twisting around every once in a while like he's looking for something.

And then he sees the glowing green guy, strapped with weapons all over him, let out a grin and a hoarse laugh and dive into an alleyway, in front of the back door to an old building that's falling apart.

It's not even five seconds later that Hiro lands in the alleyway with the rest of his team around him – and then he catches his breath when he sees exactly why this glowing green figure's landed here.

"Dani?"

It's her. She's standing there, in a blue sweatshirt and jeans, her hands in her pockets, looking up at the glowing green guy with a smile – and then her eyes fly to Hiro, and Baymax, and the rest of Big Hero 6, and her blue eyes grow wide and the smile slips. "Hiro?"

The glowing green figure turns around, and _oh wow _is that his hair on fire?

"So, it looks like you've made some friends, punk," the figure says.

"Oh, yeah," Dani says, "and you know, Skulker, I think they're all smarter than you. You know they all built their suits themselves? And it hasn't failed them yet. Unlike yours. How many times have you tried to catch us in that suit again, and failed?"

"You're as impertinent as the ghost boy," the glowing green thing that is Skulker growls, and Hiro feels himself panicking because he should be doing something and there is Dani cornered in the alleyway and _why is he standing here doing nothing when she is in danger _–

"Hiro," Honey Lemon hisses, "_what _is going on?"

"I don't – I don't know," Hiro says, and _dammit his brain cannot turn to mush right now when Dani's in danger _–

"How is he, anyway?" Dani asks, as if she's having a perfectly normal conversation. "I haven't seen him in ages. And what are you doing so far from home?"

"Oh, he's fine," says Skulker. "But he won't be for very long. You see, he'll soon be another one of my trophies. And _you're _the bait."

He raises an arm, a metallic arm that suddenly has a glowing cannon-gun thing on top of it and _shit Hiro what are you doing standing there doing nothing – _

Dani just sighs. "It wouldn't be the first time," she says, just as Hiro suddenly says, "Get him!"

Dani's eyes fly to him again and somehow Hiro thinks that she's been talking so casually because she wants him and the others to get out and away but that'd be completely impossible because she'd be suicidal to want to face this glowing green thing on her own. It doesn't make sense, he tells himself, and he launches Baymax right towards the glowing green thing, because if there's one thing he's sure of it's that he is _not _going to let Dani get hurt.

* * *

><p>He's not sure how it happens. One moment they're all heading towards him, all six of them, fully prepared with their weapons – and then suddenly they seem to go right through him and they all collapse onto the ground, crashing hard into the wall where Dani's at, tumbling over with the amount of force they've used, and Hiro is flung off Baymax and onto the ground near the entrance of the abandoned, rundown building.<p>

It's like none of them affected him. And they're all immediately pelted with a blast of green that sends them spinning even more, that knocks them into the walls, onto the ground, even more, and Hiro's eyes grow wide.

"Very determined friends, I see," Skulker says, as Dani stands, frozen, GoGo and Honey Lemon and Wasabi and Fred and Baymax on the ground next to her, and Hiro on the other side of Skulker. Skulker moves forward slightly, turns a smirk onto the boy and then to Dani: "And this must be Hiro Hamada! The famous boy genius who risked his life for the daughter of a man who killed his brother and tried to kill him."

Dani stares at him in shock, and Skulker laughs. "We do keep ourselves updated on what happens in the human world, you know," he says. "Contrary to what you and the ghost whelp thinks. I do think, however, that this boy would make a wonderful addition to my prizes."

Skulker turns back to Hiro, who is now staring up at him blankly, and his brain seems to be shutting down because _what the hell was this guy talking about_ and _what was he supposed to do _and _how the hell had they all passed through him as if he weren't even there_?

Baymax is far, far away from him, winded by the crash into the wall and Skulker's green blasts. Fred's trapped in his suit, trapped under Wasabi who's trapped under a large stone that's crashed from the building, Honey Lemon look like she's in a daze and her bag's knocked out of her reach and GoGo is trapped in Honey Lemon's chemistry goo and looking completely wiped out.

How the hell did that happen?

Hiro's alone. He is alone, and he thinks this glowing green thing is going to kill him, and _Dani is still there_.

And in front of him, the glowing green thing looks at him and a smirk grows over his face and he raises his arm, the one with the gun.

"Your fight's with me!" Dani's voice rings out, suddenly, clear and loud. "Leave him _alone_!"

There's a blast of silvery white light, and Hiro thinks he must be dreaming.

Two rings of silvery white appear around Dani's waist, going up, travelling up her body, down her arms and her legs – and as they move, her clothes seem to change; she seems to glow, and she's not wearing her jeans and sweatshirt and sneakers, she's in some sort of black-and-white outfit with gloves –

And then the ring travels up over her face, and her hair glows a ghostly, brilliant white; and when she snaps open her eyes, they're not blue, they're green, a glowing, bright green.

"What the – "

Hiro's vaguely aware of Fred's voice, of Wasabi looking up, of GoGo's eyes opening in disbelief and Honey Lemon's jaw dropping.

Dani's there. Standing there. But she's not Dani either.

Her feet lifts up off the ground, and she's floating, she's _floating_, and her hands glow a bright, eerie green.

"Dani?" Hiro finds himself whispering, blinking, because _what the hell is going on_?

Her eyes flicker to him, just for a moment, and then back to Skulker, who has turned away from Hiro, and is now grinning.

"Now, ghost girl," Skulker says, "you'll see exactly why I'm the greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone!"

All Hiro can do is stare at Dani.

(In his daze, he thinks that she looks furious and amazing but he thinks he never wants to get her angry.

What the hell is going on?)

* * *

><p><strong>any comments? haha<strong>


	3. the truth and more

**hey! thanks so much for all the reviews, and the favs and the follows and everything! i'm starting to be addicted to writing this story haha.**

**okay, first of all, i want to apologise because it feels like this chapter is super anti-climatic. anti-climax. something like that. because i am sooo bad at writing things like this omg oh dear. **

**so please forgive me if it's not up to what you expected! i just really didn't know how to write this. **

**hope you enjoy it anyway though! **

* * *

><p>Hiro's not really sure what happens, because his mind is overflowing with questions and he's in a daze and everything is happening in a blur.<p>

He can hear Dani's voice, loud, gleeful, as she yells insults and taunts at the glowing green Skulker guy. He can see flashes of bright, eerie green, loud thuds and rays screeching, and he can see, through it all, a figure that is Dani-but-is-not-Dani, floating in the air, her hands glowing green as she hurls some sort of bright discs at the Skulker guy.

Hiro doesn't know why he does it, but he yells: "HEY! Metal man!"

Skulker twists towards him, the bright gun glowing green and staring straight at his face, and Hiro gulps and wonders _what the hell is he thinking _but then he thinks _Dani _–

In a moment, Skulker's eyes have widened; the whole alleyway glows white as he yells "NO!" and then, abruptly, he vanishes, and where he once was Hiro can see Dani capping back a familiar white thermos.

"Dani?" Hiro gasps, because his brain is still whirling and whirring and trying to make sense of what's happening.

She looks up, guiltily.

"Hiro," she says, and then she bites her lip.

"That was so _cool_!" comes the cry suddenly, and they both twist their head to see Fred, who's still trapped under rubble. His eyes are wide, and he is staring at Dani: "What _are _you?"

She bites her lip again. "Let's get you out of there first," she says, and she floats over to the large chunk of stone that's dropped off the building and she lifts it, easily, as if it were a plate of small cakes she's passing to someone at the café.

Hiro's jaw drops, and GoGo stops from trying to get out of Honey Lemon's goo and stares.

"What the - ?"

"I can't hold it up here forever, you know," says Dani, and in a moment Fred and Wasabi and Baymax have staggered to their feet and are backing away as she lowers back the rubble, Fred's and Wasabi's eyes wide with disbelief and Baymax just blinking at her. It's not even five seconds before Wasabi starts freaking out, blabbering and rambling as he always does when he's panicking, and Fred is going on about his comic-book characters and asking no one in particular if Dani's a superhero because if she is then that is _so cool_.

Dani ignores them.

She helps up Honey Lemon, and she gets GoGo out of the goo with a swift glowing green disc from her hand, and then she finally goes over to Hiro, who has already been helped up by Baymax and is now staring at her with wide eyes.

"None of you have been fatally injured," says Baymax. "Is that cause for good news?"

"Yeah, buddy," Hiro says, without really looking at him, because his eyes are fixed on Dani.

Dani looks away, like she's avoiding his gaze, and there's a flash of light and two rings of silvery-white appear around her waist once more, and then she's back to the Dani he knows, the Dani he sees every day, dark-haired and blue-eyed and dressed in scruffy clothes with a thermos in her hands.

"Dani?" is all Hiro can say.

This time, she looks up at him, and she meets his eyes.

(He can't help but think that she looks nervous, apprehensive, nearly afraid, and his heart pounds because he never wants to see her look like that again and especially not at him.)

"Your heart rate is rapidly increasing," Baymax tells him.

"I guess I owe you guys an explanation," Dani says.

* * *

><p>They all go over to Hiro's labgarage, which he's never let Dani in before because it's always been too messy and full of junk. He sees her eyes widen as she takes it all in, the mess that it's full of, the screens and the piles and piles of metal and assorted stuff he uses, and he suddenly worries; but her eyes are full of awe and he suddenly feels a huge, huge sense of relief.

"Dani, dude," says Fred. "What was _that_?"

Dani doesn't look at him. Instead she looks at Hiro, standing in the middle of them all; and something twists in his chest and he doesn't know why but he steps forward and takes her hands.

"It's okay," he says, to her. "We're not going to do anything to you, you know that, right?"

She smiles, just a bit.

"It's just that the last time someone found out my secret, it didn't turn out so well for me," she says, and she thinks of Valerie and being trapped by Vlad and melting into eerie green goo and she can't help but shiver.

It's a slight shiver, barely noticeable, but Hiro's hands tighten around hers (and somehow she's grateful for that, so very very grateful for this dark-haired boy in front of her and his wide brown eyes).

"What _are _you, exactly?" Wasabi wants to know. Hiro can tell he's just a little freaked out, and Dani swallows hard, but Hiro makes her look at him.

"It's okay," he repeats. "We're your friends."

(He can't help but think that the small, slow, tentative smile she gives him now has got to be one of the most amazing he's ever seen, and he thinks his knees are feeling just a little weak again and he has to remember how to breathe.)

So she tells them.

"I'm a ghost."

There is silence in the lab, a silence that is broken by GoGo popping her bubblegum.

"Ghosts can't be real," Wasabi says, automatically, and Hiro sends him a glare and GoGo tells him to shut up.

"How can you be a ghost?" Honey Lemon asks, her eyes wide and blinking. "I mean, I thought ghosts are supposed to be – " she stops, as if unsure of herself.

"Dead," GoGo finishes, looking at Dani.

Dani gives half a smile.

And she tells them.

She tells them that she is half a ghost, half a girl. A halfa. Rare, to be sure, but she's one of the three that's floating around the world. She may be part ghost, but she's part girl as well – and that's why she's just like them, she's a human too, just with ghost powers attached.

And when she meets Hiro's eyes again, bright and brown and looking at her with so much warmth, the kind of warmth that _nobody has ever looked at her with before_, she decides to tell them everything.

Because these are her friends, now. She's sure of it.

(And she can't help but tell the truth, not when Hiro is looking at her like that with his reassuring, comforting half-smile and with the way he is holding her hands in his.)

So she tells them how she was created, as a clone, one of many that was created by the halfa Vlad Plasmius. She tells them how she's a clone of the other halfa, Danny Phantom, the ghost boy hero of a town called Amity Park. She tells them how she discovered the truth about the man who called himself her father, she tells them how she ran off, she tells them how she began to destabilise and how Danny Phantom fixed her up again, and how she took off to explore and do her own brand of good in the world. She tells them everything.

For a moment, there is an eerie, empty silence, and panic starts clawing up inside Dani because _these people don't know anything about ghosts and now she's revealed that she's not just a ghost but a clone and she's a freak and they'll never accept her just like how she's never been accepted anywhere before – _

And then Hiro is hugging her.

He is hugging her, his arms wrapped around her, a warm, tight hug that makes her fling her own arms around him.

"You're amazing," he says to her, when he finally pulls back, his face bright red. "You did all that?"

"I didn't do much," she says. "Danny saved me."

"No," he says. "You're amazing. You didn't let anyone else tell you who to be. You didn't let the fact that you're – that you're _supposed _to be someone else's clone get you down. You went out and you had your own life and you went to try and do good instead of – instead of taking revenge on the guy who hurt you. You made a life for yourself. You're amazing."

She can't help but smile, the biggest smile she's ever smiled before.

"Very romantic, kids," says a dry voice, and it's like the spell is broken, and Dani and Hiro quickly turn with flushed faces to see the older members of Big Hero 6 looking at them with amused smiles on their faces, and Wasabi sits down and says: "So, ghosts _are_ real?"

He still looks slightly spooked out.

Dani nods. "Ghosts are real."

"That is _so _awesome!" Fred says, and Dani can't help but laugh, Hiro laughing with her.

* * *

><p>They learn about the Ghost Zone, and about Dani's powers. Dani tells them that not everyone ends up as a ghost, and that all ghosts usually have an obsession, and that for most of them, their obsession's pretty bad and so most ghosts are pretty malevolent.<p>

(Hiro knows that she's told them that not everyone ends up as ghosts because she knows what's on his mind. He knows she tells them that most ghosts are malevolent because she doesn't want him to have false hope that Tadashi might still be somewhere – not alive, but not as a ghost.

And it hurts. It hurts so much, because there was the slightest chance that he could still see Tadashi, could still talk to him.

But it doesn't hurt so badly, not when Dani is looking at him with concerned eyes because she is worried for him, because she cares and she wants him to know the truth no matter how painful it is.

He knows she cares. He's _sure _she cares.

She wants to help. And Tadashi is gone, and will never come back, and there's a dull ache inside his heart; but the world goes on, and there is a smiling, dark-haired, blue-eyed girl who doesn't make things so bad.)

"What's your obsession?" Hiro asks, one day.

Dani shrugs. "I don't actually know. I mean, for Danny, I think his is protecting his town. For that old fruit loop" (and here Hiro knows she's talking about Vlad Plasmius) "I think it's Maddie." (He knows who Maddie is, too; Dani's told him about her 'cousin's' mum that Vlad is so completely in love with.) "But I don't know what mine is."

There's almost a sad, forlorn look on her face, and Hiro can't help but place his hand on her shoulder.

"Hey," he says, "obsession or not, I think you're a pretty cool ghost."

There's a smile on her face, a wide, happy smile, before she says, "I'm the _only _ghost you know."

"Well," he says, "still the coolest ghost I know."

She laughs at that.

* * *

><p>The rest of the team find it hard to get used to the idea of ghosts being real, much less <em>half ghosts<em>. Except, of course, Fred, who insists that she is a real-live superhero, even though she brushes it aside and insists that she isn't.

(She says she isn't, but Hiro is pretty sure she is.)

Fred is ecstatic. He plies Dani with a million and one questions about ghosts, and about the ghost zone, and about all the different ghosts she's met, and about the ghost-fighting technology she mentions, and her ghost powers.

Honey Lemon's nearly enthusiastic as Fred. Sure, she doesn't dump a hundred and one questions on Dani, but her excitement is contagious and every time Dani comes over to the lab or Honey Lemon drops by the café, they're usually deep in conversation within a few minutes.

GoGo's a little more cautious, a little spooked out by the idea of ghosts, and she's probably the least interested out of all of them. She seems to take it like it's a natural thing, something that could happen to anyone, and she treats Dani like normal except that now she knows Dani's got faster reflexes and more skills that anyone could have imagined. And Hiro thinks that Dani's glad of that.

Wasabi, of course, is terrified. Not terrified of Dani, per se; but he's definitely terrified of the idea of ghosts. To her credit, Dani doesn't laugh at him, but instead spends her time convincing him that ghosts aren't really all that bad. And it's not so long before he seems to relax about the idea of ghosts, it's not long before she tells him about the different ghosts in the Ghost Zone, about the labs she's flown in and out of all her life.

For Hiro, it's like a huge weight has been lifted off Dani. She's more relaxed and at ease now, and whenever they're up in the bedroom she usually ends up floating around in the air as they talk, or sometimes she turns invisible while he tries to find her, and sometimes she goes intangible or overshadows him just to make him say stupid stuff.

(He's so happy it's like it's a balloon swelling up inside him, and he thinks he might be able to fly himself.)

When she's at the lab with him, or at his lab/garage, she helps him out when she can, with her glowing green discs of power that he now knows is ectoplasm and sometimes floating about or going intangible to get to the tricky bits in his project that he can't reach so well or when something goes wrong.

(She's always helping him out, and laughing with him, and sometimes he tries to explain to her what he's doing but her eyes glaze over and he just laughs and he tells her what she can help him with.)

The existence of _ghosts _isn't something he's ever considered before. It's not science. It's supernatural stuff, stuff that can't be explained.

But it's real. _She's _real.

She laughs even more, she smiles even more, and Hiro thinks that her revealing her ghost powers to them is possibly the best thing that's happened to her.

He hopes.

He thinks.

(Because he wants her to stay, and he doesn't want her to go, and there's no secrets between them, not anymore. He's sure of it.)

* * *

><p>Dani goes on patrol with them, 'going ghost', as she calls it, as they suit up and they take to the streets of San Fransokyo.<p>

She flies alongside him, as he rides on Baymax.

"So what exactly is infused into your DNA?" he wants to know, one night as they sail above the bright city lights, the stars glittering in the night sky above them.

She smiles. "Ectoplasm," she says. "This stuff." And her hands glow green.

"_That's _in your DNA?"

Dani nods. "It's what makes me, me, I guess."

"No," he says, immediately. "No, it's not."

She blinks, confused, because Hiro is looking at her intently and she's confused: "Yes, it is."

"It's not," Hiro tells her. "_You _make you, you. That ectoplasm just gives you extra skills. Like an upgrade."

It's dark, but Dani is pretty sure her face is bright red and her heart is pounding inside her chest, _thump-thump-thump_, and Hiro is smiling at her with that cute dorky smile that he always gives her –

_Stop_!

"I'm a clone, remember?" she says to him, once she's found her voice.

He shrugs. "You're still Dani," he tells her. "And – " his face turns bright red " – that's something special."

(And his heart is pounding and his face is flushed and Dani looks embarrassed but she is smiling so, so brightly that Hiro _knows _it's so worth it to have said that to her even though he is now completely mortified.)

"Your hormone levels are rising," Baymax tells him, and Hiro's face just flushes even more and _thank god Dani didn't hear that. _

* * *

><p>One day, he asks her if she wants to join the Big Hero 6.<p>

When the words come out of his mouth, he sees her face fall.

"I don't know, Hiro," she says, and he sees her face turn away, her eyes flicker downwards, and there's a cold, clammy feeling in his stomach. "I don't stay in one place for very long. Homeless kid, remember?" And she smiles at him, a smile that doesn't reach her eyes.

"You've got a home _here_," argues Hiro. "You can't just leave!"

"I've been drifting around for two years, Hiro," she says, with that sad smile that he still thinks is so beautiful. "It's how I live. It's all I know how to do – "

"And now you don't have to!" he bursts out. "You don't mean you really want to leave?"

Dani turns away. "I _should _leave," she admits. "I should. I've never stayed in one place for so long before."

"You can stay," says Hiro. "We want you here. _I _want you here."

Her eyes flash up to meet his, then, and he swallows, because _omigod what did he just say – _

"I don't know," is all she says, again.

He doesn't press her for an answer, because he doesn't know if he can even bear to hear her answer.

(What's his life going to be like, without a funny black-haired girl with bright blue eyes and a brilliant smile?)

* * *

><p>It's a Thursday when he convinces Aunt Cass to let Dani off for the day.<p>

She frowns at him. "Is something going on? She doesn't smile as much as she used to."

Hiro thinks, guiltily, that she hasn't smiled as much, she hasn't laughed as much, since he asked her to stay.

"I don't really know," he admits. "But I was thinking maybe she'd be better after a day off."

Aunt Cass just smiles at him, gently: "You really like her, don't you?"

Hiro glances back at Dani, who is smiling at a little boy asking for a donut, and he thinks of her, of their late nights, the way she smiles at him, the way she makes everything feel just a little better and a little brighter.

(He thinks of her bright warm laugh and her brilliant smile and the way she makes everything right.)

"Yeah," he says. "I think I do."

"Oh, look at my little boy growing up so fast," she says, and she laughs: "Go on, take her with you!"

* * *

><p>So they head over to SFIT. It's a little awkward, just a little, and Hiro can't help but think of the nights where she doesn't talk to him as much, where she's just a little closed off from him, ever since that day he asked her to stay.<p>

"I need to tell you something," he says, suddenly.

"Yeah?" she asks.

Hiro takes a deep breath: "I wanted to tell you I'm sorry if it sounded like I was pressurising you to stay," he says, hurriedly, quickly, unable to look at her in the eye because he _knows _once he looks at her he's never going to be able to tell her he doesn't mind her not staying, because he minds so much; "I mean, if you want to go, I won't stop you, you know, I just – I just really like having you around. And you always have a place here. You know."

There's a long silence between them.

"Hiro?" she finally says, after a while.

"Yeah?"

"You're unbelievable," she says, and she smiles at him.

(She doesn't want to go. Not really. But she doesn't know how to stay.)

* * *

><p>Danny's grateful it's the summer, because it means, firstly, no school.<p>

And it also means that when his family takes trips, Sam and Tucker can come along too. And _especially _when it has something to do with ghosts.

They're in San Fransokyo, the entire Fenton family and Sam and Tucker who've tagged along, all because there's some science fair or convention or something that his parents are ecstatic to go for and show off their ghost equipment. So it's hours in the Fenton RV, but it's worth it, because there's still Sam and Tucker and Jazz, who are all wondering how Valerie will cope with taking care of the whole of Amity Park for two weeks.

Well, at least Skulker hasn't been seen around for a long time, not for weeks. Danny's grateful for that, at least.

It's the first day of the convention-thing that Danny doesn't really care about, and Tucker is dragging all of them to some place called the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. Sam's not particularly excited, and neither is Danny nor Jazz, but they both see the bright light in Tucker's eyes and the pleading look on his face, so they agree.

After all, they've got two weeks to check out the city. One day spent at some nerd school isn't going to kill them.

When they get there, they run into a guy in some kind of lizard suit holding a giant sign.

Who, much to Danny's chagrin, immediately starts trying to chat up Jazz.

"Hey," he says, grinning lazily at them – or, more specifically, at Jazz, who smiles back uncertainly. "Are you guys applying for SFIT?"

"Actually, we're taking a look around," says Jazz. "My brother's friend here – " She shoves Tucker in between her and Lizard Guy " – is interested in applying."

"Cool," he says, and he grins at Tucker. "The name's Fred." He sticks a long, lanky arm out of the mouth of the lizard suit.

"Jazz," she says, shaking his hand gingerly. "And this is my brother Danny, and Sam, and Tucker."

"If you're majorly into science, you're gonna love this place," says Fred. "If you want, I can show you to the nerd lab. It's where all my friends work on their projects. It is _so _cool."

"The nerd lab?" Sam whispers to Danny, who sighs, but Tucker's already eagerly agreed and the three of them set off after Fred, who is walking next to Jazz, who still looks just slightly uncertain at this college-age guy in a lizard suit hitting on her.

"So what's _your _major?" Jazz wants to know, as they step in through the doors of a gleaming building, Tucker looking around eagerly, Sam and Danny trailing behind reluctantly.

"Oh, I'm not a student here," says Fred. "I'm just the school mascot by day, and by night, I am _also _the school mascot."

"Sounds great," Jazz says, weakly, and Fred leads her through a pair of sliding doors, as he says: "Welcome to the nerd lab."

There aren't that many people around, but they all look up instantly the minute Fred the Lizard Guy walks in through the doors with a pretty redhead and a bunch of sixteen-year-olds behind them.

"Guys, this is Jazz," Fred says. "She's totally interested in this place – "

"No, not me," Jazz says, hurriedly. "Tucker is." And she pushes him forward again, but Tucker's eyes are already roaming around the place, wide behind his glasses.

"This place is so _cool_!" he says, excitedly, to nobody in particular, and it's like the whole lab bursts into laughter.

He gets caught up in a conversation with a huge guy who's introduced as Wasabi. Sam is immediately drawn to a girl with a purple streak in her hair, who looks at her unimpressed and just blows bubblegum. Fred follows Jazz around, who's already halfway through a conversation with a tall blond girl with bright pink spectacles who calls herself Honey Lemon.

Danny decides to wander around the place, but he's not really sure where to start. He's about to head into the corner to check out some weird silver metal thing, but then there's the swish of the door sliding open, and two pairs of footsteps heading in.

He turns around, then, because it's natural curiosity.

And then his eyes widen, and his jaw drops in disbelief as two kids walk in, laughing, one clearly Asian with dark hair and dark eyes, the other a girl with bright blue eyes and scruffy clothes.

They notice the extra people around in the lab immediately, and the boy stops short, confused; but the girl's eyes flicker over the lab hurriedly, almost impatiently, and they meet a pair of blue eyes exactly the same as her own.

"Danny!"

"Dani!"

And then Danny's tackled to the ground, laughing, by a girl he hasn't expected to see for a very, _very _long time.

* * *

><p>"What are you doing here?" Dani asks, once she finally lets him go, propping herself up so she's sitting across him, her eyes blue and bright.<p>

"There's some sort of science convention in San Fransokyo that my parents wanted to see, so we all came," says Danny. "What are _you _doing here? I haven't heard from you in weeks!"

He always hears from Dani, every once in a while. Every couple of weeks or so, she'll drop him a message, or more often, come by Amity Park, to pass over a thermos filled with ghosts, before flying off again. But he hasn't seen her in _months_, this time round.

"I've been staying here for the past few months," she admits, and her eyes flicker up, to the dark-haired Asian boy standing just behind her.

Danny blinks.

"You must be Danny," the Asian boy says, "with a double _n _and a _y_." He grins. "Dani talks about you a lot."

Danny laughs. "Yeah, I am," he says, and he scrambles to his feet. He's about to help Dani up, too, but to his surprise it's the Asian boy who pulls her up, and he sees her smile at him and the goofy smile he sends back at her, and he sees the way his hands linger on hers like he doesn't really want to let go.

"So, you know my name," Danny says, clearing his throat, "but what's yours?"

"Hiro," the boy tells him. "I'm Dani's friend."

Danny sees how his eyes glance over to Dani, who is beaming eagerly at her 'cousin', and Danny thinks that there's something between these two he just might be missing.

* * *

><p>Hiro can't get any work done.<p>

He's just tinkering around the workroom, walking from one corner to the other, from one place to the next, restless, but somehow his brain's not just working today and in the end he slides out into the lab, where his friends are, along with Danny's friends and sister.

"What's up, Hiro?" Wasabi asks him. "Not working on any of your projects?"

"Can't concentrate," Hiro admits. "I can't get anything done."

Fred laughs, and he wriggles his eyebrows and says: "And this totally has nothing to do with the fact that Dani's walking around outside in plain view from your window and _not _in your workroom talking to you?"

The redheaded girl he's been talking to looks up in surprise, as do the other two teenagers, and Hiro finds his face heating up, and _oh god he's pretty sure he's completely red_.

"No," he says, uncertainly, but Honey Lemon just squeals and laughs.

"Woman up, Hamada," GoGo says. "Just tell her you like her."

"I don't!" Hiro protests, weakly. "I mean, I do like her, just not _that _way!"

"Yeah, right," Wasabi scoffs.

(Hiro thinks his face must be scarlet but something is pounding in his chest and he thinks of Dani walking around the grounds outside with her cousin-who-isn't-really-her-cousin and her laugh drifting across the grounds.)

"Aw, would you look at that," the Goth-looking girl says, to the boy in the red hat. "The kid's got it bad."

"Yeah, he looks kind of like you when someone mentions you and Danny as an item," the boy tells her, and abruptly lets out a yelp as she punches him, hard.

"You should tell her, Hiro!" Honey Lemon says. "You guys are so _cute _together!"

"And I _really _don't want to have this conversation," Hiro says, and he hurries back into his workroom and he wonders what possessed him to go out in the first place when he's got so many things to do.

(He forces himself _not _to look out the window, and he makes himself _not _listen to the laughter drifting up from outside.)

* * *

><p>"So this is where Skulker's been," Danny says, once Dani passes him her Fenton thermos. They're walking around on the grounds, just outside the building, and they've been talking for what feels like hours, Danny updating her on some of the attacks and Dani updating him on everything that's happened for the past few months.<p>

She nods.

"And that's why everyone in there knows your secret?" he wants to know.

She nods again. "Yep."

He looks at her, carefully, the way she's bounding up along the pathway, the smile on her face, and he asks, suddenly: "So what's up with you and that Hiro guy?"

Her face turns bright red. "Wh-what?"

"There totally is something going on, isn't there?" Danny asks her, grinning, because he _knows _that look on her face. "You totally like him, don't you?"

She shrugs, and she avoids Danny's gaze. "He's nice," she says, talking to the grass on the ground. "I mean, he's the one who let me, you know, stay at his place with his aunt when he found out I was living in an abandoned building. And he's really smart, and funny, and he's kind of sweet, and he's fun, and – and he's really nice. And he's pretty cool."

Danny just grins down at her, as he sticks his hands in his pockets and continues next to her. "You _totally _like him."

She shrugs, and this time she grins up at him. "He's pretty unbelievable."

Danny laughs, and then his face softens slightly as he thinks of Hiro, the boy's grinning face, the boy's wide smile. "I think he likes you too," he says, and he watches Dani's face flush even more, and then he tilts his head and says, "You know, he kind of reminds me of someone."

Whatever he's expecting, he's not expecting Dani to freeze up and stop right on the pathway next to him.

"Who?" she asks, and Danny frowns, because her voice is coming out strangled, and he's never heard her sound like this before.

"Are you okay?" he wants to know, but she just shakes her head and she looks at him with those large blue eyes and a pleading look on her face and she asks: "_Who, _Danny? Who does he remind you of?"

(It's too much to hope for; it's too much to hope for, isn't it, that he could possibly be talking about a _ghost_? A ghost that she thought couldn't possibly exist, because she knows that people who end up as ghosts almost always have some kind of evil ulterior motive or some strong crazy obsession; but from what Hiro's told her, Tadashi didn't have _anything _like that, so he couldn't possibly be a ghost – could he?)

"He's a new ghost that came up a few months ago," Danny is telling her, and Dani thinks that her heart is pounding, beating so furiously. It's not possible, it is _not _possible – it's already so, so much of a coincidence that Danny and his friends are here, in San Fransokyo, it's just not possible that what she's hoping for might be _real_. She doesn't believe in coincidences. "He's a good ghost, though. I mean, he doesn't fight the others who cause trouble, but he takes care of those who gets hurt. Like when Kitty got thrown off Johnny 13's bike, he looked after her and made sure she was okay until she got better. Stuff like that." Danny grins. "He's always looking after me now, too. I think Ember's half in love with him. Kitty, too."

At that, he winces slightly, because after meeting _him_, Ember more or less dumped Skulker and started following him around instead – which, while is great for Danny because Ember doesn't cause any more trouble, Skulker's been taking his rage out on the ghost boy instead. Not to mention Johnny 13's been causing even more trouble because Kitty's half in love with the guy, too.

But, whatever. He _likes _the guy. Plus, he always looks after Danny. And Danny can't deny that it's nice, having another ghost helping him out all the time, even if he refuses to fight.

"What's his name?" Dani asks, and he frowns, because her voice sounds so hollow and yet so hopeful somehow.

(Don't get your hopes up, she tells herself, firmly. _Don't_. ((she thinks of what this might mean to Hiro, and her heart races.)) _Don't_.)

"Tadashi," he tells her, and he watches as her eyes widen, as her jaw drops: "Tadashi Hamada."

* * *

><p><strong>dundundun! okay, this chapter is probably longer than it should have been - i probably should've put Danny's arrival in the next chapter - but i couldn't resist! <strong>

**(and, i know, it really is very coincidental that Danny's in San Fransokyo. it's a fanfic! let me have my fun.) **

**clearly, this will not be a twoshot or threeshot.**

**(bytheway, i mean, this is pretty shameless advertising here but i kind of have an incredibles/BH6 crossover too. and i mean it would be fantastic if you could check it out or you know just comment on it or whatever too heh okay you know what too shameless i'm just gonna go now) **

**comments and reviews would be _amazing_! **


	4. unbelievable

**hey! first of all, thank you sooo much for all the support. all the reviews, the favourites, the follows, the views, everything. it really means a lot.**

**(ESPECIALLY the reviews, by the way. ParanoidSylph, Ninuhuju, IWasNeverReal, Fluffy Fish, XDragon WingsX, Guest, Sora Matasuki, Lemon Dropz, MariMart, theboxghost113. they were lovely. and they really gave me the motivation for this.)**

**((oh, and to the person who asked me about instagram! uhh, theboxghost113? the answer's no haha. i don't have one. sorry.))**

**anyway, so this...well, i don't really have to go on with anything after this. so guess this is the end haha. last chapter.**

**(but if anyone ever has any requests. well. BH6 crossovers seem to be my favourite thing right now.) **

**thank you to everyone who kept up and hope you guys loved this story as much as i loved writing it. **

**hope you enjoy! **

* * *

><p>When the door to the workroom slides open, Hiro looks up hopefully, thinking that maybe it's Dani after her long walk with her cousin-who-isn't-really-her-cousin.<p>

(What if she's leaving? What if she goes?)

But it's not. It's the pretty redhead that Fred's been trying to flirt with all morning.

"Hi," she says, smiling at him, and even though he's disappointed Hiro automatically smiles back. "Hiro, right? I'm Jazz. Danny's sister." She pauses, and then she says, "Well, you know, the guy Danny."

"I figured," he says, and he chuckles slightly.

"Is this where you work?" she asks him, curiously, glancing around. "It looks amazing."

He shrugs. "Yeah, it is. It used to be my brother's place."

"Oh." Jazz bites her lip, for a moment, and she wonders how to tell him what Danny's just told her. _Don't say a word to him about what we're doing, _Dani had said, and her little brother had agreed. She decides to just go with it. "Um, Dani and Danny – oh, wow, this is confusing – well, anyway, they told me to let you know that they've had to go off somewhere. And she says not to get worried if she doesn't return to the café tonight."

For a long moment, Jazz isn't sure whether he's heard her.

(His heart is pounding so very very hard and so very very fast.)

And then he raises his head, his eyes wide: "Wait, _what_?"

* * *

><p>Dani's not very comfortable leaving without saying a goodbye to Hiro.<p>

But this is important. Much, much more important.

She follows Danny as they fly through the streets of San Fransokyo, invisible, until they fly through and into the RV parked in the basement of some fancy hotel where the convention thing is. Danny tells her that his parents have some sort of portable Ghost Portal they've brought along for the convention, and they can use that to get into the Ghost Zone.

"So you're telling me that this guy is really Hiro's brother?" Danny asks, again, for what feels like the billionth time as they slow to a halt and transform back into their human selves outside the RV.

"Yeah," she says. "It _has _to be. I mean, you said yourself that he's called Tadashi Hamada. And he appeared a few months back, when Tadashi died in that fire. It has to be him."

Danny doesn't say anything as he unlocks the RV and helps Dani up inside.

"You really care about this guy a lot, don't you?" he wants to know.

Dani shrugs, avoids his eyes. "He's a good guy."

Danny's face breaks into a grin, and it softens, just slightly.

They find the portable Ghost Portal, already set up in the corner, and Danny flicks it on. It bursts into life, glowing green shining out from underneath the silvery metal. For a moment, Dani bites her lip, because she's not sure if this is the best thing to do.

Then she thinks of Hiro, and she steels herself.

"We'd better go," Danny says.

They exchange a look, and the metal doors slide open and they swoop in.

It's been a while since Dani's last been in the Ghost Zone. Sure, she drops in from time to time, but she hasn't been in here since she moved to San Fransokyo. She glances around at the murky surroundings, the random doors and places floating everywhere.

_Tadashi_. She needs to get to Tadashi.

"Hey, Ember!"

For a moment, Dani thinks he's gone crazy, when she sees Danny wave down the ghost rock star. She's never been around when Ember and Danny have fought each other, but she's heard enough of the stories.

But surprisingly, Ember sends a smile their way and floats down next to them: "Whaddya looking for, dipstick?"

"Tadashi," Danny says. "Have you seen him?"

"Yeah," says Ember, and Dani watches as a slightly giddy smile crosses the punk's face, before she shoves it down. "I'll bring you to him."

She spins on her heel and flies off, and Dani trails behind Danny as they follow. "Seriously?" she asks, quietly, looking over at him. "You guys are all friends now?"

Danny just grins at her. "I told you she's half in love with Tadashi."

* * *

><p>They find him easily enough. He's talking to Kitty as he works on some kind of funny invention with his hands, his back facing them, and Dani wonders if she's the only one who can see the slightly lovestruck look in Kitty's eyes as the red-clad ghost watches him.<p>

Probably. Danny's clueless. And if Tadashi is just about clueless as Hiro is, then he wouldn't know either.

(She wonders if they look like each other.)

"Hey, TADASHI!" Danny calls out, as they land on the giant rock that Kitty and the other ghost were sitting on, Ember in front of them.

The guy abruptly turns around and beams. "Danny!"

Dani's eyes widen.

It's Tadashi Hamada. It is. Hiro's brother.

It's in his features, the messy dark hair, the wide brown eyes, that half-smile that she's seen in the photos Hiro has. It's in his clothes, the jacket, the shirt, the fitting jeans and the bright green shoes. It's in everything in him that she sees in Hiro.

He glances over at her, then, and his own eyes widen. "Hey, I've never seen you before. I thought Danny's only sister is Jazz!"

"Cousin of sorts," Danny offers, when Dani opens her mouth but no sound comes out; she's still staring at Tadashi because _oh god he is there he is floating in front of her what would Hiro say_? "She's Dani, with an _i_."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Dani with an _i_." He beams at her, holds out his hand.

Dani doesn't even know what gets into her. She punches him in the shoulder, hard.

"Ow!"

"Hey!" Ember glares at her, and Kitty jumps to her feet, as Tadashi staggers backwards slightly and rubs at his arm. "What do you think you're doing, dipstick?"

"Dani!" She can hear Danny's slightly panicked voice, but the ghost girl doesn't care. She crosses her arms, now floating gently, and she glares at Tadashi Hamada.

"Um, do I know you?" Tadashi is still wincing as he looks up at her.

"No, but – how could you?" she demands, and when he just stares at her, confused, she floats nearer and jabs a finger into his chest. "Do you _know _how many nights and how many days and how many bloody _hours _I've spent listening to people talk about you, I've spent talking to your brother about you? Do you know how many people _miss _you? Do you? Do you know how I want to help that _stupid boy _so much and I don't know how and _every single time _someone mentions you or he gets reminded of you he just closes up completely? Do you know that you practically _killed _yourself and he hasn't forgiven himself for stopping you? Do you know just how much he misses and thinks about you all the time? Like, every day? And here you are in the Ghost Zone like none of that matter when your brother – your brother – "

"Wait, what?" Tadashi's eyes are wide, but he is now staring at her in disbelief. "What are you – you – how do you – Hiro?"

The last word comes out almost strangled.

"_Yes, Hiro_!"

He looks at her, at Dani's angry glare boring into him.

Tadashi can only look at her, with his eyes staring into her as if he's drowning and she's the only lifeline that he can possibly reach; and then he buries his head into his hands, for so long, that Dani glances over at Danny, who only shrugs at her.

"Hiro," Tadashi mutters, suddenly, and then his head shoots up to look at her, eyes wide: "You – you know Hiro?"

"_Yes_, I know Hiro! I've been staying with him and your Aunt Cass for months!"

"You're half-ghost," he says, slowly. "Aren't you? You – you know Hiro."

"Yes!" she says, exasperated. "I'm here _because _of Hiro!"

(She thinks of Hiro, the way he makes her laugh, the way he makes her feel safe and comfortable like nothing will happen to her again.)

"Dani," says Danny, quietly, taking in Tadashi's form, sinking to the ground, Ember and Kitty hovering behind him protectively: "Maybe you should explain things a bit more."

So Dani sinks to the ground in front of the boy from San Fransokyo, Danny next to her, and she tells him.

She tells him how she found a job in the Lucky Cat Café. How she plays video games with Hiro, how she stays with them, how she helps Hiro out and listens to him and talks while he builds and plans. She tells him of the hours and the nights they've stayed up, Hiro telling her all about his amazing older brother Tadashi, the most amazing older brother anyone could ever have (and her heart clenches when she thinks of Hiro's sad face looking up at her). She tells him how Danny and his friends coincidentally appeared in SFIT while she was there with Hiro, and she tells him how Danny's told her about _him _– Tadashi Hamada, the new ghost hanging around who's different from any other ghost Danny has met.

"You want me to go back," he says, slowly. "You want me – you want me to see Hiro."

She throws up her hands in disbelief. "Yes!"

"But I can't."

That snaps Dani to attention: "What? Why?"

"He'll never forgive me," Tadashi says, and to the ghost girl's astonishment, he curls up; pulling his legs closer to him, bending over, looking out at the murky green that is the Ghost Zone. "I – I left him. I abandoned him. To save Callaghan. And it was _Callaghan _who started the fire. I left him, and – "

"_That's _what you're worried about?"

Dani jumps up into the air, staring at him in disbelief.

"I don't believe you! Your brother cares for you. All he cares about is _you_. Fine, maybe he'll be mad that you practically killed yourself and you left him. But I think he's going to be a lot more relieved to find out that maybe he can actually still talk to you! That you're around in your own way, even if you're not alive! You're his _brother_!"

Tadashi just stares up at her, his lips moving silently.

"Maybe I just heard too many good things about you from Hiro," Dani mutters, and she crosses her arms and glares even harder. "Maybe I just believed that you would be all he said you are."

Danny's gaze flickers from Dani to Tadashi.

* * *

><p>It's late at night, and Dani's <em>still <em>not back.

Hiro supposes he shouldn't be worried. After all, the redhead – Jazz – she's told him that Dani said she might not be back. She didn't seem worried when she and Sam and Tucker had left without Danny – saying it was a usual occurrence, that they'd call if they were in trouble.

Hiro doesn't really care.

_Dani's not back_.

He has a feeling that Jazz and Sam and Tucker know where Dani and Danny are, but they're not telling him or the others. He's not very happy.

(What if something's happened to her?)

He doesn't think he'll be able to bear it. He's lost his parents, he's lost Tadashi, he can't lose Dani too –

He stops himself almost instantly. His parents and Tadashi are _family_. But Dani – Dani –

_Dani's family too. _

_Like a sister. _

_Not very much like a sister. _

_She's very much like a sister_.

Hiro shuts his eyes, groans, and falls back onto his bed. _Dani_. She needs to get back. She needs to get back soon, or he's _never _going to be able to sleep or be at peace again –

"Hiro?"

"Dani!"

He jumps up from his bed at the voice, but one quick glance around the room shows that nobody's there. "Dani?"

"Oh, right. Sorry." Suddenly Dani materialises in front of him, in her ghost form, grinning sheepishly.

He doesn't even think. "You're okay!"

And then he flings his arms around her tightly.

Dani freezes; and then, almost slowly, she hugs him back.

(She is _totally _not blushing. And her heart rate is _totally _not increasing. She's a ghost – heck, her heart's not even beating in this form!)

"You're okay," Hiro says, his voice muffled, as he speaks into her shoulder: "You were gone for the whole day, you didn't even let me know where you were going, I had no idea where you were or what you were doing, I was so _worried _– "

(He can't even think properly, he _knows _his brain is turning to mush and he's so very aware of how closely he's hugging her but he can't really care because _Dani is here and she is safe and she hasn't left him._)

"I'm okay," she says, just a bit softly (and no, she is _not _blushing furiously. Of course she isn't.). "I'm sorry I didn't tell you where I was going. But, uh, I had a surprise for you."

At that, he steps back, looking at her with those wide brown eyes. The only thing he can really think about is how she is here, how she hasn't left him. "Surprise?"

"You've got to be kidding me. It's only when I die that you get a love life?"

The voice is familiar. So very, very, familiar.

Slowly, Hiro turns around.

And there he is.

He's a ghost, to be sure. Hiro can tell that instantly. He's floating a few feet off the ground, and his hands are in his pockets, and he's grinning at Hiro, almost shyly.

Hiro thinks his brain automatically just turns off.

"_Tadashi_!"

Tadashi smiles at him. "Hey, knucklehead."

Hiro flies at his older brother, tackling him into a hug and sending them both onto his bed. His head is whirling and his heart is pounding and all he can think about is that _Tadashi is here Tadashi is here Tadashi is here _–

He doesn't realise he's crying until his body is wracking with sobs as he holds onto Tadashi, the tears sliding down his cheeks.

"Hey," Tadashi says, gently. "Hey. I'm here. It's okay."

Hiro pulls back, for a moment, to look at his brother. He's here. He's really here. Sitting there next to Hiro, his arms wrapped around in a hug, with that stupid smile on his face. He's glowing, for sure, but _he's here_.

Hiro punches him.

"What were you _thinking_?" he demands, as Tadashi winces slightly and rubs at his arm. "You _bonehead_! You ran into the fire, just like that? You – you – "

And then Hiro finds he can't get the words out, because he's choking and his eyes are blurry with tears and he has to hang on to Tadashi tightly.

"Hey," Tadashi says. "Hey. I know, I'm sorry. I thought I could make it. I really did. I'm sorry. I'm here now, Hiro. I got you."

For a long while, it's just the two of them, Tadashi hugging Hiro as the younger boy cries into his older brother's shoulder, and they sit there, and it's just them.

The Hamada brothers. Back together.

Dani sits on the edge of Tadashi's bed as she morphs back into her human form, and she smiles.

It's some time later when Hiro finally raises his head and looks over at Dani. "You brought him," he says, and there's something in his voice that the ghost girl can't quite place. "You – that's where you went. I thought – I thought I wouldn't – I wouldn't see you – "

He falls silent, as if almost embarrassed, but Dani catches on.

"You thought I'd just leave you, just like that?" she asks, her voice incredulous.

Hiro shrugs, and Dani can make out a blurry smile on his face.

"Now I get why he calls you knucklehead," Dani says. "I wouldn't go off just like that!"

"She convinced me to come back, you know," Tadashi tells him, guiltily. When Hiro looks up at him, the ghost grins sheepishly and continues: "I thought you wouldn't want to see me anymore. That it'd be better for you if I just went off. She – well, let's say she can be very convincing."

"And you're totally grateful that I persuaded you," says Dani, grinning, and Hiro can't help but smile again, let out a choked laugh.

"I swear, I thought she was going to blast me into oblivion," says Tadashi. He smiles. "Your girlfriend's very determined."

"Yeah," Hiro says, without thinking. "Yeah. She's amazing."

It's maybe thirty seconds later when he's realised what he's said.

Dani is staring at him from across the room, her face turning redder by the minute; and next to him, Hiro can feel Tadashi shaking with barely controlled laughter.

Himself?

He thinks he must be redder than Dani.

"Oh, man, I didn't – I didn't mean it – I mean – oh, shit – "

Hiro stares at Dani. Dani stares back at him.

He watches as she slides off the bed and onto her feet, padding her way across the room to go over to him.

(He can't think; he's pretty sure his brain goes haywire whenever Dani is around.)

"I thought, you know," she says, as she finally reaches him, "that you at least have to go out on a date first before officially being together."

Hiro stares at her in disbelief. His brain, usually so fast, is trying to process what she's just said.

"But just because you call me your girlfriend, doesn't mean I'm letting you beat me at Doomed," she warns him, as Tadashi, still next to him, chuckles.

"I like her," he's vaguely aware of Tadashi saying.

Hiro doesn't really care. Because right now he can see Dani smiling at him, her smile growing wider and wider; and somehow his hands find hers.

(Her heart rate increases rapidly. As a halfa, she's always cold – but right now there's a warmth she can't explain spreading through her.)

(He's finding it hard to look away from her face. He's pretty sure if he were on his feet, his knees would give way. And his brain – okay, he's pretty sure his brain just went into complete overdrive.)

"You'll - you'll stay?" Hiro finds himself asking, almost hesitantly.

(It's hard to get the words out when she's smiling at him like that. It's hard to get the words out when her hands are in his. It's hard to get the words out when he's so afraid of her answer.)

Her smile, if possible, becomes even bigger.

(She thinks maybe her life won't be so bad now. Maybe probably her life's taking the best turn ever since she met Danny. Maybe probably taking the best turn ever since she got stabilised.)

"I'm staying."

They stay like that. Hands in each other, smiling at each other. Hiro doesn't think he's ever smiled so widely before. (Except, maybe, for when he got accepted into SFIT.)

But this is Dani.

She's staying.

She's staying with _him_.

Tadashi, from behind them, says one word. Hiro thinks it pretty sums up everything.

"Unbelievable."

* * *

><p><strong><em>End.<em>**


End file.
